


Pizza My Heart

by Ashiepants



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M, High School, Just adorable baby Sonny, Pizza, Puppy Love, Teenage Sonny, all limbs, and long hair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 06:46:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7498203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashiepants/pseuds/Ashiepants
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>16-year-old Sonny Carisi just wants his hair to stop curling, to get home in time to do his homework, and for his boss to stop making him deliver pizzas on his bike.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pizza My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> From a prompt for SonnyVictimsUnit on tumblr

He locked his bike up in the back as quickly as he could and ran in through the back door of the restaurant. He shrugged off his backpack and reached for his apron on the hooks. 

"'Ey, Sonny!" The owner Sid Mineo chastised him. "I give ya a promotion and ya show up late!"

"Sorry, Mr. Mineo." Sonny frowned 

He smiled because he liked the kid. He always called him mister. "I'm doin' ya pops a-"

"A favor, I know. I'm sorry." Sonny nodded as he tied his apron. 

"Yeah well there's orders up!" He pointed to the receipts hanging on the clips. 

Sonny went right to work. He tied his long hair back before he started, noting that growing it out did nothing to keep his hair from curling. He should probably cut it, and short. He pulled out balls of dough and started to knead it into a flatter surface which he tossed, the way he was taught the previous week. 

Sid smiled at the kid. He was goofy looking but he was a good one. He didn't even give his friends free pizza when they came in. It was a shame the kid was bright. He'd eventually graduate high school and go to college and probably leave Staten Island but Sid could use a kid like Sonny Carisi to help run the joint. He had no kids to inherit this place, just ungrateful nephews. 

"Sonny can you run the counter?" He asked. 

Sonny sighed. "Yeah. I gotta watch the pizza though." 

He wiped his floury hands on his apron and wiped the sweat at his brow with his arm, leaving a streak of flour on his forehead. 

He got to the counter in time to hear the door chime. In walked the slim brunette that came in every Monday. Sonny's blue eyes widened and he attempted to straighten his hair. 

"Hey, my pizza ready?" she asked. "Linetti?"

"Uhhh..." Sonny just stared at her. 

The corner of her mouth lifted into a smile. "Hello? Anybody there?"

"Um, yeah it'll be a few minutes," he swallowed. 

"Okay..." she gave him a more than appraising look. "I'll go sit, just yell okay? Name's Sam."

"I know!" he said too loudly. 

She laughed, "okay then."

"I...okay." He nodded. 

She glanced over her shoulder at him as she went to sit at one of the tables. Sonny turned to look at the oven. Her pizza was inching down the conveyor belt. 

"Go back to da pizzas, Son." Sid came back. 

"What?" Sonny asked. 

"I can watch the counter." Sid nodded. 

"But I want to..." Sonny begged, he was looking at Sam sitting across the restaurant.

He tried to look away before giving his true intentions up. Sid looked over his shoulder and quickly saw the object of Sonny's affections. 

"Oh...a broad." Sid smirked. 

"I'll go make pizza." He sighed and resigned himself to the kitchen. It's not like he had anything to say to her anyway.

Samantha Linetti was a year ahead of him at school in his sister, Gina's, class. She played clarinet in band and was otherwise not noteworthy to her classmates. Sonny watched her come in and pick up pizza for family every Monday. He knew she drove her grandma's old station wagon and sometimes she brought her little sister. 

On some Saturday afternoons she'd show up with her band mates: a girl he thought was named Hazel and a guy he hoped wasn't her boyfriend. Today he'd said more words to her than he ever had before, but it seemed as if it was destined to end there. 

He watched the pizza and tried not to feel bitter about how lame he was being. She wasn't going to be interested in him. 

He took the hot pizza from the oven and dropped in the box and cut it as instructed and shut the box. 

"Order up," he signaled Sid. 

"Why doncha take it out ta her," Sid nodded.

Sonny's throat went dry again, "Uh...uh okay."

His palms felt instantly clammy as he picked up the box. He gripped the sides tight as he made his way around the counter. 

Mineo stopped him, "ey!"

He motioned Sonny closer and wiped the flour off his forehead. 

"Now don't screw it up!" 

Sonny swallowed eyeing the brunette quietly reading a worn paperback while sitting in the lobby. He noted the little hairs on her thin neck. He willed himself forward, taking short breaths. 

He felt like he as moving in slow motion as he approached her table side. He said nothing but his choked and ragged breath caught her attention. She looked up at him with big brown eyes through long lashes. 

"That my pizza?" she grinned wide. 

Sonny was momentarily breathless. He pushed the pizza forward and felt the heat radiate out of his cheeks. The dimples flexed and Sam grinned a little deeper. She put her book back in her purse and grabbed one end of the box. 

"'Ey, you're Gina's little brother, right?" she asked as she stood up. 

Sonny backed up as she got out of the booth but didn't release the box or answer her. He continued to stare with wide blue eyes, his cheeks a deep scarlet by this point. 

Sam stared back and chewed her lip waiting patiently for him to say something. "Well..."

Sonny took a sharp intake of breath and she watched him hopefully. He coughed and finally loosened his grip on the pizza box. 

"Sorry," he grimaced. 

"It's Dominick?" she smiled. 

"Sonny," he corrected but said no more. He stared at her hands, small and delicate with the short nails of a musician. 

She blushed and rolled her eyes slightly. Sam adjusted her grip on the box and released her breath. 

"Well, thanks Sonny," she didn't look directly at him, confused by his lack of conversation. "See ya around, I guess."

"Yeah," he managed after she had reached the door and with a jingle disappeared into the afternoon. 

At the counter Sid smacked his forehead, "JAYSUS Sonny! You're terrible at this."

Sonny frowned and hung his head, turning pink once again, "thanks mr. Mineo."

He clapped him on the shoulder, "don't worry dere's always next week."

A glimmer of a smile appeared briefly on Sonny's face, "yeah."  
****  
The sun had long since gone down and Sonny was busy wiping down tables of the now empty Mineo's Pizza. It had slowed down significantly from the dinner rush. 

'Maybe I'll get out of her early at least,' Sonny thought bitterly still stung from his blundering awkwardness around Sam. 

He was always easily making friends with the girls in his class and most he knew since childhood or from church but Sam was different. She felt that way to Sonny anyway, he'd never noticed her until she stopped by his English class to drop something off for the teacher. She quickly replaced any pin-up or pop star the rest of his friends obsessed over. 

He moped the rest of his shift wondering how he could come back from this mess. Maybe he could practice something cool or funny to say. A joke, an anecdote. Maybe he could ask Gina for advice in a roundabout way. He couldn't tell her he had a crush on Sam. The teasing would never end. 

"'Ey Carisi," Sid called from the counter. 

Sonny perked up from the gum he'd been attempting to pry from the bottom of the tables hoping he'd be told to call it a night. It would be nice to go home early for once and at least attempt to do his homework instead of rushing it over his Cheerios. 

"One last delivery on your way home," he explained. 

Sonny groaned as he stood up fully. Bicycle delivery was Mr. Mineo's latest attempt at growing his business. Knowing Sonny didn't have a car he got him a milk crate to attach to the back of his seat that was just big enough for a couple of medium pizzas. Sonny hated delivering because all the inhabitants of Staten Island seemed to know him as "Dom Carisi's boy" and because they'd known him since he was "knee high to a grasshopper" there was rarely a tip. That and everyone seemed to live up hill. 

Sid was grinning as he handed Sonny the slip. Sonny tore off his apron with one hand and looked at receipt in his other. 

"Linetti?" He asked, raising his eyebrow, "but..."

Sid shrugged, "guess dey needed seconds."

Sonny's heart beat a little faster. 

"Go on, don't let it get cold," Sid smirked. "And let ya hair down; chicks dig long hair."

Sonny smiled unconsciously and felt himself go red. "I can't--"

"Of course ya can, Sonny. She's just a girl." 

Sonny swallowed and nodded. Sid Mineo wasn't necessarily the best man to take advice about girls from. Thrice married, and divorced, not necessarily an eligible bachelor. He struggled to remember what gems he'd gleaned from his father as he loaded the pizzas into the crate and secured them with bungee cords. 

Despite his reputation as not being the cuddliest of cops on the beat, Dominick Carisi Sr had a way with the ladies. They fawned over him at the grocery store, even if he wasn't there, telling Sonny's mother how lucky she was and what a "good guy" Dom was. Maybe it was the badge or maybe it was the way he called every woman 'miss' regardless of her age. His dad was always complimenting his mother: 'Annie did I tell a ya today dat ya beautiful?'. In fact he came armed with a respectful compliment for most women. He'd never heard his dad talk about their bodies even when he was with the guys. He was more likely to sip his beer and attempt to restrain himself from snapping at them, thoughts of his 3 daughters and how young men like these treated them heavy on his mind. 

He was tough on Sonny, but he knew how to be gentle with women. Sonny tried to envision how he might accomplish the ease with which his father complimented without being a flirt. Sonny couldn't flirt either, though. He smiled and stammered, he'd perfected staring from afar. The past summer Sam had been among the girls Theresa invited over to sunbathe in the backyard. Sonny was sequestered to his bedroom and "stay out of sight," but he caught glimpses out the window, feeling especially guilty about the lust filling his mind. 

He mused over it as he began riding up the hill towards the Linetti's address. It was possible she wouldn't answer the door at all and he could just go home to worry about if he'd ever have the courage to talk to her. 

He parked his bike at the end of the driveway and set the kickstand up. He swallowed staring up the walk with the pizzas in his hand. He's never been to the Linetti's house before, Sam always picked it up. He saw the station wagon he saw her drive and his heart rate increased. 

Before he reached the door he quickly decided to pull his hair out of the ponytail. It couldn't hurt. Maybe Sid was right and if Sam was into his hair maybe he'd keep a long a little longer. 

He pressed the buzzer and wiggled his foot impatiently. After a few seconds that felt like hours the door opened revealing the slim brunette once again. She grinned at Sonny and he felt his cheeks burn. 

"Hey, it's the pizza guy," she smiled wide. 

"H-hey," he managed. "It's, uh, $16.80."

She handed him a twenty from the back pocket of her jeans and Sonny stiffened. 

"The rest of that is for you," she cocked her hip and smiled warmly. 

Sonny suddenly felt sweaty. "Thanks," he mumbled. 

"My cousins came over," she offered in explanation, motioning over her shoulder inside the house. "We needed more food."

Sonny smiled, "g-glad to help."

"Thanks, Sonny." She looked down the driveway and noticed his bike. Her mouth dropped open. "He makes you ride your bike!?"

Sonny glanced over his shoulder at his bike and then back to Sam. He shrugged. 

"You poor thing!" She grimaced. 

Sonny knew his cheeks were bright red and hoped she mistook it for just being flushed from the bike ride. 

"You wanna come in and have a slice? Maybe something to drink? I don't think my dad would mind," she pointed her thumb in the house again. 

Sonny shook his head, "uhh, thanks but, I gotta get homework...home!"

She chuckled, "alright Sonny."

He felt his dimples flex at her saying his name again. He rubbed the back of his neck feeling the heat on his skin. 

"Night, S-Sam," he smiled with a brief awkward wave. 

He turned back towards his bike, shutting his eyes and breathing a little easier. 

'That wasn't so hard,' he told himself. 'Just...go back and say something nice. She hasn't shut the door yet.'

He spun back around and Sam widened her eyes. 

"Hey, Sam?" Sonny started, his confidence beginning to soar. 

"Yeah?" she opened the door again. 

With her facing him he felt a flare of shyness. 

"You-you have nice hands," he mumbled out and shut his eyes in embarrassment. 'Her hands?'

She giggled and looked at her hands, "my hands? I hate them I can never paint my nails because of band."

Sonny's confidence bolstered, "me either. Mr. Mineo doesn't want me to get paint chips in the pizza dough."

She laughed fully, her mouth opening wide revealing a row of neat teeth. Sonny laughed too. 

He bit his lip, "Sam?"

"Sonny?" she raised an eyebrow. 

"Do- ya wanna hang out sometime?" He asked nervously. 

A huge smile broke out over her face, eyes shining as she nodded wordlessly. Sonny swallowed and grinned himself. 

"Ok. Ok! Great," Sonny couldn't stop smiling as he turned back to his bike still mumbling 'great' and 'ok.'

"Sonny wait!" she called coming after him down the walk. 

"Yeah?" he turned surprised. 

"Here's my phone number," she pulled a felt pen from her pocket and wrote it on the back of the receipt in his hand. "That way you don't have to ask your sisters."

He met her eyes and grinned, holding his breath. Sam chewed her lip. He saw the pink in her cheeks as well and released the breath he was holding. Sam retreated to her house. Sonny folded the paper carefully and stuck it in the pocket of his jeans. 

"See ya later, Sonny," she waved him off. 

"Night, Sam," he grinned back, straddling his bike and kicking back the stand with his foot. 

Sam didn't stop smiling as she closed the door. Sonny rode back down the hill. His cheeks hurt from smiling so big as the wind blew back his curls. He couldn't wait for next Monday.


End file.
